Scale: 1/125

Set includes 5 mounts (turrets) with barrels:
2 "double knuckle" mounts with blast hoods
3 "single knuckle" mounts
5 barrels
 
Recommended for the Lindberg 1/125 scale “Blue Devil Destroyer”, USS Melvin DD-680, Fletcher class.
 
Among naval historians, the US Navy 5"/38 caliber cannon is considered the best intermediate-caliber, dual purpose naval gun of World War II. These models represent the 5"/38 cal. Mk.30 single-gun mount fit to several classes of warships and Coast Guard cutters.
 
Of the five 5-inch/38 Mk.30 single mounts normally fitted to a Fletcher class destroyer, two mounts were "Double Knuckle" heavyweight Mod.41 mounts fit to the main deck. The "Double Knuckle" mounts were known as "Mount 51" and "Mount 55".  Three "Single Knuckle" lightweight Mod.60 mounts were carried, all fit on top of deckhouses in superfiring positions, known there as "Mount 52", "Mount 53" and "Mount 54".
 
The two "Double Knuckle" mounts had a reinforced roof with two "bumps", called "knuckles", that resisted blast from another 5-inch turret firing overhead.  Double Knuckle mounts were usually fit with blast hoods to protect the gun mount captain.  The "Single Knuckle" mount was so named because of the single "bump" on the turret roof.
 
Compared to the "early version", the late version, reproduced here, appeared sometime after 1942, had a different arrangement of stiffeners on the front of the gunhouse and more fasteners on access hatches.
 
These late mounts are often seen on "square bridge" Fletchers such as USS Kidd DD-661, now preserved as a museum ship.
 
Features:
overall dimensions and details scaled from official US Navy O.P. 1112 drawings dated March, 1945 and measurements taken from a surviving Mod. 41 and Mod.60 mount aboard the museum ship USS Kidd DD-661
mount can be made rotatable and the gun can be positioned at any realistic elevation
an accurately shaped asymmetrical gunhouse (turret)
accurate, offset gun opening
forward face stiffeners
detailed turret bottom supporting structure with accurately placed bolt-head detail
rear vent
detailed gun captain access hatch, with balst hoods on the Double Knuckle mounts, fit to the right side of the roof as they were during World War Two
barrels have an open shaft all the way through
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